I'm owned by two horses. Romeo is a 17 year old AQHA gelding, who will be putting his trail buddy / babysitter status to good use. Harley is a 7 year old AQHA gelding out of Skys Blue Boy, and this year, we're going to try all KINDS of new things.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Show Results 05/02/10 Freestyle Farms

You'll see sometime in the coming days why these scores are adequate for the conditions...

The show was nice. Full! The tests were ridden in the indoor covered arena, which turned out to be for the best. The outdoor arena had incredibly uneven footing. Fortunately, when I prepared to warmup, there was a crowd in the outdoor. The grassy tree field beside the outdoor looked beautiful. I warmed Ransom up out there, weaving in and out of trees, and generally enjoying the day. When I did find a break in the outdoor, he was irregular and yuckie. Poor guy was going from loose soft sand to rock-hard sand. Hard to perform his best in that. The indoor footing was nice, soft, and even. Judge sat inside a pick up truck, with tinted windows, so I couldn't see her nod and acknowledge my salutes, but oh well.

Anyways, if anybody's interested, I can post up judge's comments tomorrow or Thursday. Comment appropriately if that's what ya'll would like me to do. Here's the skinny..

Test #1 Ransom felt great. He was soft on the aids, listening to me, and I had really nice up transitions. A couple stickie down transitions, but square halts, and nice round circles. 63.043%

Test #2 Ridden spectacular. I was all smiles, and even laughed a few times to myself at how hard he was trying. The trots felt really good, and the canters even better. He tugged hard at the transition to free walk, and I tugged back. Paid for that.. along with some other things I can get to later.62.857%

Placings weren't the best. Second in Test #1, last in Test #2. That's okay. I don't ride dressage for placings - I ride for scores & comments.

As for Ransom, he's on a break until we can get to see our vet Wednesday morning. I'll explain why in another post, but he's showing his age. Poor guy, he's trying so hard!

2 comments:

What great scores!!! And I bet at least some of the people in the warm up were jealous at you for being able to have a horse who was sane enough to warm up out in the trees. I hope everything is okay...you have me nervous with your need to call the vet.

OTB - Thanks. I need reminding that those aren't bad scores, even though they still seem low. He was awesome in the warmup - squirrel bumbling near by in the trees, traffic on the road outside the pasture, a few other horses & trainers near by (not many, though.)Most stuck to the outdoor (unfenced) arena - which confused me. Why not ride in the shade of the trees where the footing was a little better? It wasn't a gloomy dark field, nor was it super big.